Olympic channel or here https://olympics.com/en/live/
Olympic channel or here https://olympics.com/en/live/
Brilliant doc! Thanks for the reco. Watched it twice back to back. The post-race epiphanies (both Akinori'96 and Takahashi'00) were very moving.
Jzs wrote:
colorunner123 wrote:
This is a very moving story about marathoner Naoko Takahashi, a Japanese dynamo who won the Sydney Olympics marathon in 2000 and broke the marathon World Record in Berlin 2001. If you cried when Molly Seidel won her bronze medal, you'll probably lose it when you watch this documentary too. Highly recommended.
Saw it about 3+ weeks ago .. yes, it was very good; not sure if it’s the all time best ever.
agree-I saw the link on the official Olympic Website and watched it-good summary about the history of Japanese marathoning and Takahashi's life and coach/mentor Koide, as for the best ever nope...
watched it on the first day of Olympics. I cried. Beautiful documentary,
The moment she makes a break is interesting. She passes a water bottle to her Japanese team mate and then sprints away. Interesting tactic!
Documentarian wrote:
The moment she makes a break is interesting. She passes a water bottle to her Japanese team mate and then sprints away. Interesting tactic!
Also, just seen the moment she threw her sunglasses away and they bounced off a motorcycle. Lidia Simon didn’t react, so she knew she was tired and chose that moment to make a decisive break. With the obsession on times in the marathon, it’s a great reminder that the marathon is a RACE.
Good stuff. I remember her but knew nothing about her backstory or her coach. He wasn't interested in her at first, but let her practice with the team to see if she could be good a pace-setter. Then it dawned on him that she could be better than the top runners she was pacing.
That film was filmed in the last year (2021). She is nearly 50 years and looks much younger. An attractive lady with a very down to earth quality about her.
Documentarian wrote:
Documentarian wrote:
The moment she makes a break is interesting. She passes a water bottle to her Japanese team mate and then sprints away. Interesting tactic!
Also, just seen the moment she threw her sunglasses away and they bounced off a motorcycle. Lidia Simon didn’t react, so she knew she was tired and chose that moment to make a decisive break. With the obsession on times in the marathon, it’s a great reminder that the marathon is a RACE.
Simon recovered and reacted later and closed the gap in the stadium. Simon was at the finish line to greet her at her retirement race. They knew each other from training in Boulder, and were top competitors who supported each other. Quite refreshing to those who think they need to run on hate.
These days Naoko sits on the lead truck at ekidens and marathons doing co-commentary for one of the TV channels in Japan. I think it might be TBS.
Watched the first 10 minutes. Most in Japanese. Is there a way to bring up subtitles?
Gwalkerruns wrote:
Watched the first 10 minutes. Most in Japanese. Is there a way to bring up subtitles?
Yes. In the bottom of the screen there is an icon that allots you to add subtitles.
paul72 wrote:
Jzs wrote:
Saw it about 3+ weeks ago .. yes, it was very good; not sure if it’s the all time best ever.
agree-I saw the link on the official Olympic Website and watched it-good summary about the history of Japanese marathoning and Takahashi's life and coach/mentor Koide, as for the best ever nope...
Which running documentary, in your opinion, is better than this one? "Unbreakable: The Western States 100" was also very good.
Thanks for the tip. I enjoyed watching it this evening with the family -- my daughter is a Japanese major, so it had a little something for everyone.
Really enjoyed this. It seems literally absurd that the doc didn't mention her WR, the first sub-2:20, literally the very next year. It just says "oh and after the Olympics she got injured and later retired." I wouldn't have looked this up unless someone mentioned her WR earlier in the thread!
big daddy wrote:
Really enjoyed this. It seems literally absurd that the doc didn't mention her WR, the first sub-2:20, literally the very next year. It just says "oh and after the Olympics she got injured and later retired." I wouldn't have looked this up unless someone mentioned her WR earlier in the thread!
Yup, and she won Berlin again in 2002. Good doc but really took the odd perspective that Olympic medals are the only thing that matters, anything else was treated as an afterthought.
Some other tidbits about her. Takahashi means tall bridge. She was the 1st woman to break 2:20 (in the 2001 Berlin Marathon), but lost the world record to Catherine Ndereba the following week at the Chicago Marathon. She was somewhat of a national hero after her Olympic gold.
Japanese women have won the most medals in the marathon at the World Championships (11) of any country (Kenya is 2nd with 9).
Fire on the Track, about Pre, may have been better. Watched it so long ago it’s tough to say.
This one about Takahashi certainly had better production value. Lots of great race video and well done interviews.
Does anyone know how come her mom was not featured? They interview her dad and her brother, and Koide’s assistant, among others.
One part that stood out was when she said Coach thought the less I weighed the faster I would run , and so did I, but we were both wrong.
big daddy wrote:
Really enjoyed this. It seems literally absurd that the doc didn't mention her WR, the first sub-2:20, literally the very next year.
Although they don't mention it explicitly they do show a brief clip of Q-chan and Coach Koide celebrating immediately after she crossed the finish line. You can see the time in the upper-right corner of the screen.
Great documentary !
Charming lady in an understated way. Very humble too.
Did anyone notice she doesn't have a high back kick like runners nowadays have? It's more like a very fast shuffle.
Charlesvdw wrote:
Great documentary !
Charming lady in an understated way. Very humble too.
Did anyone notice she doesn't have a high back kick like runners nowadays have? It's more like a very fast shuffle.
Molly Seidel has a similar shuffle gait, a la Joan Benoit. Africans tend to have the huge back kick.